Courtesy photo
The Monster Mappers took second place in the annual South Berwick-Eliot Rotary Community Geo Bee. The Mappers team included Vivian Burnham and Nate Reppucci of the Great Works School; George Taran and Cynthia Moloney, quiz organizer and Great Works School librarian.

SOUTH BERWICK -- The Geo Quiz champions from Bondgarden Farms of Eliot were at last unseated as the Berwick Academy team moved in to take the gold in the South Berwick-Eliot Rotary’s 6th annual Community Geo Quiz, which raised more than $8,500 for a school in northern Haiti last weekend.

Bondgarden Farms, which has won the last three Geo Quizes, was edged out by the Berwick Academics, led by high school history teacher Chris Onken, all in fun and to benefit the small school in northern Haiti.

The money raised Friday night, at an event that drew more than 200 people to the Great Works School, came from local businesses and individuals who sponsored the quiz teams for at least $150. Some donated as much as $1,100 to support a team.

“There was an incredible amount of support for this project and the quiz as a whole,” said Bonnie Peterman, international director of the South Berwick-Eliot Rotary who helped organize the event. “The game was as fun as the cause was important.”

The Moloney family of South Berwick began running these Rotary quizzes as a way to help make a difference in the world. Mike Moloney, a York Rotarian acts as emcee and came up with the questions. Cindy Moloney, school librarian, put together the teams. Annie Moloney, a sophomore in high school, was on a runner-up team. And Catie Moloney helped with map questions and audience participation.

“This year more than ever, the quiz teams were especially enthusiastic about the game and about geography,” said Cindy Moloney, who also played on a team. “We just had the kind of energy that engaged the whole room, It made it more fun and in the end, I think, more profitable.”

The funds raised in this geo quiz will help the Eben Ezer School in Milot, Haiti, pay for carpentry, painting and sewing supplies, and will pay to send a container to Haiti with solar panels and a generator. All of these items are part of a vocational program that will help the school be more self-sufficient.

The Eben Ezer School has grown from 30 to 300 children and from two to 12 classrooms since 2007, when southern Maine got involved. Families, students, churches and Rotary clubs in southern Maine have sponsored children, made trips to Milot, contributed books and sent down generators.

The Haitian American founder of the Eben Ezer School, Lucia Anglade of Long Island, NY, was at the quiz, making her fifth trip to Maine to thank the community. Anglade, who was born and raised in Milot, built the school on her family’s land on the site of her childhood home.

A new bank account at Kennebunk Savings Bank will accept donations to Life and Hope targeted to this project. Eventually, Life and Hope plans to build a training center and guest house that will provide jobs and an income for the school community, reducing its dependence on donations.

More information on Life and Hope, which runs the Eben Ezer School, is available at the web site: lifeandhopehaiti.org